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606.1    Report  of  A.J.  Bloor. 

C43pBL    delegate  of  the  New  york| 
A. I. A.,  to  the  26th 
annual  convention  . . . 
held  in  Chicago,  Oct. 20-22, 1892, 

(1893) 


ILli^^Oi5  HISTORICAL  SURVEY 


REPOET  OF  A.  J.  BLOOR,  DELEGATE 
OF  THE  NEW  YORK  CHAPTER  A.  I.  A. 
TO  THE  TWENTY  SIXTH  ANNUAL 
CONVENTION  OF  THE  INSTITUTE, 
HELD  IN  CHICAGO.  OCTOBER  20tli, 
2Ist  and  22nd,  1892. 


ILUNOrS'HlSTORICAl  SUPM: 


'^v-^-y 


REPORT  OF  A.  J.  BLOOR,  DELEGATE 
OF  THE  NEW  YORK  CHAPTER  A.  I.  A. 
TO  THE  TWENTY  SIXTH  ANNUAL 
CONVENTION  OF  THE  INSTITUTE, 
HELD  IN  CHICACO,  OOTOBER  20th, 
2Ist  and  22nd,  1892. 


Ph£ss  of 

ISAAC   H.    BLANCHARD, 

New  Yosk. 


CL. 

IT) 


CH3pBL 


REPORT. 


f  Welles  Building,  18  Broadway, 
'(JYew  York,  February  2d,  1893. 

To  the  New  York  Chapter  of  the  American  Institute 
of  Architects : 

Those  practitiouers  or  students  in  architecture  who  were 
privileged  last  October  to  survey,  under  the  guidance,  in  some 
cases,  of  tlie  designers  tliemselves,  one  after  another  of  the 
wonderful  congeries  of  buildings  which  have  sprung  up,  as 
if  in  fairyland,  under  tlie  inspiration  of  genius,  the  impulse 
of  energy,  tlie  guidance  of  skill  and  the  hand  cf  industry,  to 
serve  tlie  at  once  patriotic  and  international  purposes  of  the 
World's  Exhibition  in  honor  of  the  modern  discoverer  of  tliis 
liemisphere,  saw  what  has  probab'y,  as  a  group,  never  been 
surpassed,  in  the  architectural  development  of  the  world, 
since  El-Karnak,  with  its  forest  of  Cyclopean  pillars,  rose 
from  the  eastern  shore  of  old  Nile  and  stretched  forth  -past 
all  its  courts  and  pylons,  and  its  retinue  of  lesser  temples 
and  obelisks  and  royal  colossi — mirrored  in  its  sacred  lakes 
— its  long  processions  of  woman-headed  and  ram  headed 
sphinxes  to  meet  El-Uxur,  with  its  most  beautiful  of  colon- 
nades, and  its  own  similar  array  of  satellite  structures  and 
advance-guard  of  obelisks  and  statues;  while  on  the  liither 
shore,  across  the  lotus-lined  flood  which  only  yesterday 
"2^         yielded  up,  to  the  quest  of  so  many   thousand  years,  the 

3-- 


mystery  of  its  source,  tnere  blended  with  the  eastern  group, 
in  one  transcendent  vision,  the  Ramesium,  with  its  surpassing 
sculpture  and  graving  and  coloring,  and  tlie  Amenophium 
with  its  colossal  Memnon  waiting  daily  for  the  setting  sun  to 
make  vocal  its  lips  of  stone,  and  the  towered  palace-temple 
of  Medeemet-Haboo,  each  the  centre  of  its  own  subsidiaries; 
and  altogether,  on  both  shores,  spreading  with  their  varied 
splendors  over  eight  square  miles  of  territory;  while  each 
flashed,  under  the  Egyptian  sun  and  cloudless  sky,  the  sharp 
arrises  of  its  slant-lined  obelisks  and  court-vvalls  and  pro- 
pylsea  against  the  dark  flanks  of  the  outlying  western  moun- 
tain, its  rocky  base  hewn  out  into  the  labyrinthine  corridors 
and  vaults  of  the  Tombs  of  the  Kings,  whose  mummied 
features,  unwrapped  from  the  cerements  of  ages,  to-day  meet 
the  photographer's  gaze  still  set  in  the  stateliest  lines  of 
imperial  dignity. 

Whoever  was  thus  privileged  to  inspect,  with  its  creators 
as  ciceroni,  what  can  but  be  allowed  to  be,  on  the  whole,  a 
most  harmonious  outcome  of  the  immense  project  of  the 
White  City,  must  surely  mark  as  red-lelter  ones  the  three 
days  coincident  with  the  Institute's  twenty-sixth  annual  Con- 
vention. For  the  building-' — the  main  ones  at  least,  and  a 
majority  of  those  put  up  by  the  various  States — were  really 
finished,  from  the  engineer's  and  architect's  point  of  view, 
and  their  interior  construction  not  yet  hidden  by  their  pro- 
posed contents  ;  while  the  incomplete  sculptural  decoration 
did  not  too  much  distract  the  attention  from  theraain  masses 
and  lines,  and  the  experiments  as  to  color-decoration  covered, 
as  yet,  such  small  space  that  they  were  still  less  likely  to  do 
80.  The  color-schemes  were  indeed  so  meagrely  rendered,  as 
yet,  that   they  hardly  came  into  consideration,  except  oc- 


casionally  to  pique  curiosity  and  give  play  to  irresponsible 
and  harmless  suggestions,  born  of  active  imagination  or  of 
tliat  caeoethes  carpendi  wliicli  one  occasionally  detects  in  the 
average  display  of  human  nature. 

With   the  outside  attractions  presented  by  the  Exposition 
buildings,  it   was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  even  half  of  the 
"  visiting  architects"  would  be  found  in  attendance  at  either 
of  the  two  sessions  of  the  Convention  at  one  time;  but  I  was 
informed  that  over  a  hundred,  representing  nearly  twenty 
States,   registered   at  the  Institute  of  Building  Arts,  that  ad- 
mirable  organization,    founded   and    carried   on,  at  his  own 
cost,   with  iiianifold  good  results  to  the  profession  in  the 
North  West,   by   Henry  Lord  Gay,  for  so  many  years;    till, 
in  fact,  he  presented  it  as  a  gift  to  the  Illinois  Chapter  of  the 
Institute.     Here   the   successive   arrivals,    (which  included 
many  ladies  accompanying  their  husbands  and  fathers),  were 
welcomed  by  Mr.    Perce,  the  manager  of  the  Building  Arts 
Institute,   and   by  Mr.    Beaumont,   Secretary  of  the  Illinois 
Chapter  A.  I.  A.,  and  by  them,  as  the  Chapter's  guests,   re- 
freshed in  the  inner  man,  after  their  journey;  as  well  as  pro- 
vided with  badges  and  tickets  to  serve  throughout  the  three 
days,  as  passports  to  the  grounds  and  buildings  of  the  Fair. 
The  occasion  vras  therefore^  inaugurated — and  it  continued — 
as  if  of  the  nature  of  a  picnic  (as  everything  that  yields  a 
pleasant    time -and  that    without    necessary    reference  to 
sylvan  banquetting — is  class.-d  by  the  ingenuous  youth  of  the 
period).     But  a  picnic,  the  world  over,  is  an  occasion   much 
more  suitable  for  facilitating  amenability  in  a  voting  body 
than  it  is   for   the   serious  transaction  of  the  business  of  an 
assemblage,  presumably  collected  to  promote  the  permanent 
interests  of  an  artistic  and  scientific  fraternity. 


How  little— outside  of  the  Exposition  buildings  them- 
selves—there was  in  the  ostensible  proceedings,  for  the  trans- 
action of  which  the  call  was  made,  to  interest  the  profession 
at  large,  may  be  inferred  from  a  glance  at  the  reports  of  the 
Convention  in  the  columns  of  the  principal  periodicals  of  the 
Union  representing  our  specialty ;  and  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  Messrs.  Wm.  Rotch  Ware,  Editor  of  the  "American 
Architect,"  F.  S.  Hunt,  of  the  "North-western  Architect," 
and  H.^C.  Meyers,  of  "  Engineering,"  were,  as  well  as  R.  C. 
McLean,  of  the  "Inland  Architect,"  present  in  person;  while 
"Architecture  and  Building,"  and  other  serials,  were  repre- 
sented by  special  deputies.  The  pioneer  of  all  of  them,  and 
which  has  easily  held  its  own  among  them  for  excellent 
literary  quality  and  for  judicious  devotion  (with  an  occa- 
sional aberration)  to  the  best  interests  of  our  art  and  prac- 
tice—"The  American  Architect  and  Building  News  "—gave 
simply  the  reports  of  the  Directors  and  two  of  the  Committees 
with  the  President's  opening  address  and  Mn  Baumann's 
weighty  and  careful  "  Thoughts  on  Style  "  without  one  word 
of  minor  matter,  or  of  the  debates,  such  as  they  were.  "  The 
North-western  Architect  "—which  sprang,  several  years  ago, 
under  new  editorship  and  management,  from  the  "  Building 
Budget,"  the  monthly  which  Mr.  Henry  Lord  Gay,  at  no 
small  sacrifice  of  time,  strength  and  money,  so  long  carried 
on  simultaneously  with  his  Institute  of  Building  Arts,  in 
the  interest  of  improved  conditions  for  practitioners  in  his 
locality— gave  three  of  its  columns  to  the  proceedings.  "The 
Inland  Architect,"  always  alert  in  securing  at  a  Convention 
more  copy  than  the  other  architectural  or  ywas^architectural 
serials  have  found  it  possible  to  get,  this  time  overflowed  into 
some  fourteen  columns;  while  "  Architecture  and  Building," 


which  is  seemingly  the  special  vehicle  for  the  output  of  such 
moral  courage  as  is  doubtless  latent  in  the  profession,  made 
its  usual  brave   fight   to   secure   equal  editorial  rights,  and 
evidently  tried  subsequently  to  atone  for  the  imperfect  or 
belated  copy  doled  out  to  it,  as  well  as  to  purify  the  situation 
generally,   by   several  successive  editorials,  e.  ^r.,  "The  In- 
stitute Meeting  "   issue   of  Oct.  29th,    1892;  "The  Institute 
Secretaryship  "— Decem.  24th,  1892— an  untitled  editorial- 
April  29th,   1893— and  the  "  International  Congress  of  Arch- 
itects "—May  13th,  1893.   In  the  first  of  these,  "Architecture 
and  Building"  truly  said — "  Of  the  meeting  itself  there  is 
more  to  be  said  about  what  it  did  not  do  than  what  it  actually 
accomplished.     Mr.   Kendall's  address   [as  President],  and 
Mr.  Adler's  report  [as  Secretary,  on  behalf  of  the  Directors], 
briefly  reviewed  the  most  important  topics  naturally  falling  to 
these  officials  and  were  chiefly  concerned  with  the  relations 
of  the  Chapters  and  the  Institute  to  the  State,   together  with 
a  summary  of  what  had  been  accomplished  in  the  agitation 
for  the  betterment  of  Government  Architecture  and  a  refer- 
ence to  the  failure  of  the  passage  of  the  license  law  in  New 
York.     To  complete   the  record,  it  might  be  added  that  the 
Treasurer's  report  showed  a  satisfactory  financial  condition, 
that  certain  distinguished  gentlemen  were  made  honorary 
members  and  that  the  paper  of  the  meeting  was  read  by  Mr. 
Baumanu.     In  addition,  there  was  an  eating  of  lunches  and 
a  seeing  of  sights  which  seemed  to  have  well  nigh  dominated 
the  entire  proceedings.     Useful  and  entertaining  as  the  latter 
parts   of  the  programme  unquestionably   were,   they  were 
scarcely   the  things  to   hold  the  foremost  place  in  the  pro- 
gramme of  so  important  a  meeting." 


FIRST   DAY. 

The  Convention  opened  in  "Recital  Hall,"  a  large  assem- 
bly room  in  Adler  and  Sullivan's  colossal  "Auditorium  Build- 
ing," on  the  evening  of  October  20tli,  1893. 

The  inaugural  address  of  President  Kendall  showed  that 
he  had  broken  important  ground  in  procuring  from  the  vari- 
ous Chapters  of  the  Institute  such  information,  in  regard  to 
their  local  work  and  functions,  as  might  afford  a  means  of 
comparing  and  stimulating,  by  worthy  emulation,  their 
influence  for  good,  in  relation  to  the  building  interests  of 
their  respective  communities.  The  information  he  quoted 
showed  that,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  the  Jnstitute 
Chapters  throughout  the  Union  took  an  active  part  in  framing 
the  building  laws  under  which  they  work,  and  some  of  them, 
e.  g.  the  New^York  and  Boston  Chapters,  have  much  author- 
ity thereunder  (the  duties  of  the  New  York  Chapter  being  the 
more  numerous  and  its  authority  the  greater),  not  only  in 
respect  to  constructional  but  to  art  questions.  In  both  of 
these  a  veto  power,  in  conjunction  with  several  other  art 
societies,  is  vested,  in  relation  to  the  placing  of  statues,  etc., 
in  the  public  parks,  etc.  The  Boston  Chapter,  moreover,  is 
a  member  of  the  local  society  representing  the  Archaeological 
Institute  of  America ;  its  members  have  special  privileges  at 
the  Public  Library  and  Art  Museum ;  it  officially  criticizes 
the  monthly  work  of  the  students  in  architecture  at  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  aud  usually  awards 
two  annual  prizes  for  the  best  work  done  by  them ;  and  the 
Trustees  of  the  Rotch  Travelling  Scholarship  wisely  entrust 
to  it  the  examination  and  the  general  oversight  of  the  schol- 
ars' work.    Similar  beneflcent  functions  might  well  be  sought 


9 

by  the  other  Chapters,  care  being  taken  to  vest  their  official 
responsibilities  as  to  the  building  interests  of  their  respective 
communities  in  those  members  who  are  amply  experienced 
in  practice,  as  well  as  versed  in  theory.  The  President  also 
bespoke  the  co-operation  and  financial  support  of  the  pro- 
fession toward  a  project  laid  before  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Institute  by  Baron  H.  von  Geymiiller,  an  eminent 
architect  of  the  French  capital,  who  proposes  to  delineate  the 
work  and  reproduce  in  fac-simile  the  drawings  of  the  famous 
architects  from  the  15th  to  the  18th  centuries,  which  would 
become  archives  of  the  greatest  artistic,  constructional  and 
historic  Value  to  the  profession  and  the  art  public.  Alluding 
to  the  success  of  a  Committee  of  the  Institute  in  dealing  with 
the  Federal  authorities  on  the  question  of  improved  methods 
in  carrying  out  the  architectural  service  of  the  national 
government,  one  evidence  of  which,  as  enunciated  by  one  of 
the  Federal  officials,  was  that  the  conditions  to  be  established 
for  such  service,  with  reference  to  the  selection  of  or  com- 
petition among  architects  should  be  approved  by  the  Insti- 
tute, the  President  compared  the  latter's  preeent  influential 
position  with  tlie  legislative  conception  of  it,  not  more  than 
15  years  ago,  as  an  association  of  mere  dilettanti,  when  its 
New  York  Chapter  was  named,  by  a  New  York  State  Senator, 
the  Royal  Order  of  Lollipops;  and  after  a  complimentary 
reference  to  the  splendid  housing  of  the  Convention  in  the 
Columbian  Exposition  as  the  Institute's  credentials  of  capa- 
city to  those  of  whatever  nationality  who  might  assemble 
therein,  he  closed  with  a  recommendation  of  some  eminent 
names  for  enrollment  in  the  Honorary  Membership  of  its 
ranks. 
The  Report  of    the  Board   of    Directors     repeated     this 


10 

recommendation,  as  well  as  the  information  in  the  President's 
address  as  to  the  progress  made  in  Washington  in  rela- 
tion to  a  reform  in  the  conduct  of  the  architectural  de- 
sign and  administration  of  the  buildings  of  the  United 
States  Government ;  it  censured  certain  parties  for  opposing 
the  passage  of  a  license  law  for  architects  in  the  Legislature 
of  the  State  of  New  York  ;  mourned  the  death  of  four  of 
the  Institute  fellows  ;  gave  the  figures  of  the  accession  to  its 
ranks  during  the  year,  including  four  new  chapters  ;  dwelt 
on  the  difficulties  ( the  magnitude  of  which,  those  who  have 
done  the  most  of  the  correspondence  and  work  of  the  Institute 
know  best)  of  finding  an  altogethei  satisfactory  determin- 
ation of  the  relative  status  of  the  Institute,  its  chapters  and 
their  respective  members  ;  with  reference  to  these  difficul- 
ties, presented  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Institute  By- 
Laws  offered  by  A.  J.  Bloor,  and  recommended  its  adop- 
tion in  the  hope  that  it  would  suffice  to  cover  all  present 
needs  of  the  Institute ;  and  also  recommended  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  to  revise  the  existing  regimen  of  the 
Institute.  Tlie  Directors'  report  was  referred,  for  consider- 
ation of  its  recommendations,  to  Messrs.  Scofield,  McLaugh- 
lin and  lUsley. 

Treasurer  S.  A.  Treat's  report  showed  the  receipts  for  the 
year  to  have  been  $3,887.03,  which,  with  a  balance  from  the 
preceding  year  of  $3,215.07,  produced  a  fund  of  $0,102.09. 
The  expenditures  for  the  year  had  been  $4,191.20,  including 
$1,052.68  for  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, only  $114.77  for  Treasurer's  expenses,  and  $1,944.81 
for  Secretary's  salary  and  expenses.  This  item  for  Secre- 
tary's account  would  have  been  increased  to  $2,044.81  if  tlie 
last  item  of  disbursements  shown  in  the  report,  viz.  :  $100  to 


11 

"  A.  J.  Bloor  for  collecting,  assorting,  etc.,  tlie  archives  and 
illustrations  of  the  Institute,"  had  been  included,  as  it  properly 
should  have  been,  in  the  Secretary's  bill.  As  a  personal  favor 
to  the  Institute  Secretary,  who  pleaded  that  he  had  no  leisure 
to  attend  to  such  labor,  though  he  required  its  results  for  a 
project  he  had  formed  of  making  an  index  of  the  Institute's 
archives,  your  delegate  had  it  done  under  his  own  super- 
vision by  a  third  party,  on  condition  that  his  bill  for  it 
should  be  paid,  the  service  being  part  of  the  legitimate  work 
of  the  Institute  Secretary,  out  of  that  Secretary's  salary.  It 
is  noticeable,  as  a  similar  instance  was  last  year,  that  instead 
of  the  outlays  for  account  of  the  Secretary  and  Treasurer 
being  nearly  equal,  as  formerly  (and  to  an  amount  for 
each  generally  within  $300),  the  Secretary's  call  (including 
the  misplaced  item)  on  the  treasury,  as  compared  with  that 
of  the  Treasurer  himself,  is  not  far  from  as  18  to  1,  while  last 
year  it  was  as  about  28  to  1.  The  Treasurer's  report  was 
referred  to  Messrs.  Patton,  Alexander  and  Shipman,  as 
Auditing  Committee,  and  was   iu  due  course  certified   as 

correct. 

Mr.  R.  M.  Upjohn,  as  chairman  of  the  Special  Committee 
on  the  Conservation  of  Public  Architecture,  presented  a  forci- 
ble paper  on  his  subject ;  but  confined  his  observations  to 
that  of  his  own  city,  New  York.  He  protested  against  the 
vandalism  of  condemning,  in  the  interest  of  commerce,  such 
fine  monumental  edifices  as  the  present  Treasury  building, 
of  wlate  marble— a  magnificent  work  in  Grecian  Doric— and 
the  present  Custom  House,  designed  by  Isaiah  Rodgers, 
architect,  and  built  of  Quincy  granite— the  perfection  of  ma- 
terial and  workmanship— in  the  Ionic  order.  Mr.  Upjohn 
disputed  the  claim  hitherto  made  as  to  the  real  architect  of 


12 

the  present  Treasury  building,  and  tliought  it  incumbent  on 
the  Institute  to  recommend  the  Treasury  Department  to  sub- 
stitute the  name  of  William  Ross  for  that  of  Fraser,  whose 
name  is  cut  on  the  building  as  its  architect,  but  who  was 
only  its  superintendent,  and  incidentally  expressed  liis  con- 
viction that  an  architect's  name  should  be  signed  to  his  own 
buildings. 

Mr.  Charles  E.  Illsley,  chairman  of  the  Special  Committee  on 
Competitions,  presented  a  short  series  of  rules  calculated  to 
elucidate  and  ease  this  important  and  frequently  disquieting 
element  in  architectural  practice.  Your  delegate  is  not 
aware  whether  Mr.  Illsley's  labors  had  been  lightened  by 
reference  to  papers  on  the  subject  issued  by  the  Royal  Insti- 
tute of  British  Architects  and  by  various  architectural  fra- 
ternities in  France,  Germauy  and  elsewhere  on  the  European 
continent ;  or  by  the  best  American  word  on  the  subject 
known  to  your  delegate,  viz.  :  that  contained  in  a  pamplilet 
prepared  by  Prof.  Ware,  of  Columbia  College,  and  published 
by  the  Institute  seventeen  years  aoro. 

As  usual  in  the  last  few  Conventions,  Chapter  delegates 
were  afforded  no  opportunity  to  make  use,  for  their  constitu- 
ents' mutual  information,  comparison,  edification  and  en- 
couragement, of  the  annual  reports  of  their  respective 
Chapters,  which  were  referred  for  consideration  to  Messrs. 
J.  G.  Cutler,  A.  W.  Longfellow  and  C.  J.  Clark,  who  on  the 
last  day  of  the  Convention  reported  thereon  that  it  had  found 
them  "  of  great  .interest  and  worthy  of  careful  consideration, 
but  since  it  would  be  impossible  to  take  up  and  consider  any 
suggestions  at  that  late  hour  of  the  Convention,  the  Com- 
mittee contented  itself  with  congratulating  the  Institute  on 
the  general  satisfactory  activity  manifested,  and  advised  the 


13 

reference  of  the  reports  to  the  Board  of  Directors  for  detailed 
discussion  and  the  publication  of  them,  or  such  parts  of 
them  as  they  might  deem  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify 

such  action." 

Then  followed  what  seemed  to  your  delegate  to  be,  from  the 
intellectual  and  scholarly  point  of  view,  Xh^piece  de  resistance  of 
the  occasion,  viz.,  Mr.  Frederick  Baumann's  paper,  entitled 
"  Thoughts  on  Style."  It  showed,  however,  considerably  more 
familiarity  with  German  art  criticism  than  with  any  other,  and 
contained  au  allusion  to  Ruskin  which,  taken  by  itself,  might 
convey  an  impression  that  is  perhaps  unjust  to  that  greatest 
of  all  art-inspirers  (though  by  no  means  master  of  the  tech- 
nics of  at  least  the  architectural  field  of  art);  and  I  think 
inappropriately   and  somewhat  unfairly  characterizes  Fer- 
gusson's    dogmatism  as    springing   from   "  haughtiness  ;  " 
whereas,  like  the  former,  and  indeed  like   nearly  all   the 
writers  on    architecture,    whether    in    English    or    foreign 
tongues  (Viollet-leDuc  being  almost  the  solitary  exception), 
who  have  achieved  great  reputation  with  the  public,  he  sim- 
ply lies  under  the  disadvantage  of  having  had  only  a  dile- 
ttante training  in  technics,  so  that  the  thoroughly  grounded 
student-especiaily    if  he  has  had  opportunity  to  develop 
into  the  experienced  practitioner— detects   deficiencies  the 
layman  does  not  apprehend-deficiencies,  moreover,  which 
are  made  more  apparent  in  our  days  by  our  familiarity  with 
the  new  and  rich  fields  uncovered  and  so  profitably  worked 
by  the  archJEologist  since  Fergusson  wrote.     And  it  should 
be  remembered  that  if  the  technicalist  takes  particular  pains, 
in  addressing  the  public,  to  make  matters  plain  to  them,  he 
will  be  very  apt  to  illustrate  the  Latin  proverb  ^^  Brevis  esse 
laboi-o  obscurusfio;"  and  also  that,  so  far  as  the  furtherance 


14 

of  mutually  advantageous  relations  between  the  specialist 
and  the  public  which  employs  him  is  concerned,  it  is  un- 
doubtedly better  that  a  book  on  architecture  should  be  writ- 
ten, if  for  miscellaneous  and  wide  distribution,  from  the 
amateur's  and  not  fromtlie  professional  point  of  view  ;  archi- 
tecture, from  the  fact  of  its  overlapping  at  ils  various  points 
with  mechanics  and  with  specially  intractable  material,  being 
that  one  of  the  fine  arts  which,  above  all  others,  is  apt  to  be 
unappreciated  and  undervalued  in  the  popular  estimation. 

Starting  with  the  theorem  that  "the  convenient  meta- 
physical doctrine  of  abstract  entities,  though  still  applied  by 
some  authorities,  may  at  this  day  be  regarded  as  extinct ;  " 
and  that,  owing  to  the  practical  quality  of  our  epoch,  "  we 
no  further  recognize  a  beauty  in  abstracto  "  hxit  find  itin- 
stead  to  be  subject  to  '  a  Darwinian  law  "  which  has  evolved 
from  "  a  few  types  "  its  present  "  manifold  forms,"  he  went 
on  to  discuss  the  subject  under  the  headings  of  "  style  of 
mechanical  art,"  "the  art  of  building  "  and  "  style  in  fine 
art."  He  noted  that  most  of  the  great  writers  on  the  term 
"■style"  shun  a  strict  definition,  but  quoted  a  few  who  had 
attempted  it.  Of  the  trio -Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Michael 
Angelo  and  Raphael— in  whom  the  Renaissance  culminated, 
he  thought  the  first  the  strongest,  though  he  made  the  least 
contemporaneous  show  on  account  of  having  had  "  too 
many  irons  in  the  fire."  He  thougiit  the  "  style  problem  " 
more  difficult  to  master  in  architecture  than  in  either  of  its 
sister  arts,  and  closed  a  very  thoughtful  and  painstaking 
essay  with  the  assertion  of  the  poet  that— 

"  What  dazzles  for  the  moment  spends  its  spirit ; 
"What's  genuine  shall  Posterity  inherit." 


15 

The  Convention  then  (without  reference  to  the  distinction, 
implied  by  the  terms  of  ihe  Constitution,  between  the  two 
grades  of  Honorary  and  Corresponding  members)  elected  to 
its  Honorary  Membership  :  President  Elliot  of  Harvard  and 
President  Low  of  Columbia,  Mr.  Marlin  Brimmer,  President 
of  the  Boston  Art  Commission,  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Gilder,  Editor 
of  the  Century  Magazine      It  included  in  the  like  honor- 
doubtless  to  their  surprise  on  learning  it,  and  it  may  be 
hoped  also  to  their  gain  in  wholesome  amusement — Professor 
C.  E.  Norton  of  Harvard,  Mr.  F.   L.   Olmsted,  the  senior 
Landscape  Architect  of  the  Fair  grounds,  and  Professor  Bab- 
cock,  of  Cornell.     This  was  done  on  the  recommendation  of 
the  Directors,  obviously  in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  fact  that 
the  last  three  have  been  for  years  on  the  Honorary  roll  of 
the  Institute  and  that  the  last  two  had  been  subsequently 
dropped  therefrom,   having  come  under  the  operation  of  a 
law  duly  passed  by  the  Institute  that  Honorary  Members  who 
enter  the  lists  of  current  practice  as  rivals  of  those  prac- 
titioners whose  dues  give  financial  support  to  the  Institute 
should,  in  justice  to  the  latter,  be  placed  on  the  same  finan- 
cial footing  with  them  ;  and  in  apparent  ignorance  also  that 
Mr.  Babcock  had  already  been  restored  to  the  Honorary  list. 
Later  on  in  the  proceedings,  after  a  fitting  eulogium  by  Mr. 
Henry  Van  Brunt,  there  was  added  to  the  Honorary  roll  the 
name  of  Mr.  H.  S.  Codman,  one  of  the  Exposition's  Land- 
scape Architects— those  artists  whose  canvas  is  the  face  of 
nature,  the  earth  and  sky,  the  hill  and  dale,  the  horizon  and 
the  clouds,   the  woods  and  rocks  and  fields,  the  lake  and 
stream— whose  peucil  is  their  own  imagination  and  fertility 
of  conception— and  whose  pigments  are  tlie  sunshine  and  the 
shade,  with  all  that  the  arborist  and  horticulturist  can  yield. 


16 

After  some  remarks  from  the  Secretary  eulogizing  Mr. 
Buruham,  the  Director  of  Works  of  the  Exposition  Build- 
ings, for  his  instrumentality  in  securing,  on  the  programme 
for  their  impending  dedication,  a  public  recognition  of  the 
services  of  their  architects  and  of  the  various  artists  associ- 
ated in  their  work,  two  committees  were  appointed  for  the 
nomination  of  officers,  etc.,  for  the  next  ensuing  yiar,  and 
tiie  Convention  adopted  a  resolution,  offered  by  Mr.  Henry 
Van  Brunt  and  seconded,  with  some  complimentary  remarks, 
by  Mr.  Stone,  thanking  the  Hon.  John  C  Tarsney,  Chair- 
man of  the  U.  S.  House  Committee  on  Buildings  and 
Grounds,  and  his  fellow-committeemen,  for  their  attention 
in  carrying  through  the  House  the  bill,  recommended  by  the 
Institute,  for  the  improvement  of  the  national  architecture. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Smith  tlien  spoke  some  words  of  regret  and 
condolence  in  reference  to  several  lately  deceased  Fellows  of 
the  Institute,  viz.  :  Messrs.  Edward  Burling,  George  M. 
Goodwin,  Henry  Hudson  Holly,  Edward  E.  Schwabe  and 
Albert  L.  West,  and  offered  the  following,  which  was  unani- 
mously carried : 

''Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  be  and  is  hereby  directed  to 
prepare  a  suitable  memorial  page  in  memory  of  our  late  Fel- 
lows, for  publication  in  the  Proceedings  of  this  Convention, 
availing  liimself  of  such  data  as  he  may  be  able  to  obtain 
from  friends  residing  in  or  near  the  localities  in  which  our 
late  brethren  resided."  * 


/^'®  ^'o'll.v  proper  lujimotiou  has,  however,  been  ouly  partially  re- 
garded. The  Profieedlugs  show  only  a- black-bordered  page,  containing 
the  words,  "  Mortuary  List  of  the  American  Institute  of  ArehltPcts,"  and 
the  names  and  late  addresses  of  the  defunct,  without  one  word  of  '•  such 
data  and  with  the  Interpolation  of  the  name  of  a  party  who  never  had 
the  slightest  connection  with  the  Institute. 


17 
SECOND  DAY. 

The  Second  day  of  the  Convention  was  devoted  wholly  to 
a  survey  of  the  Exposition  Buildings  and  to  witnessing  the 
ceremonies  attending  their  official  dedication.  As  might  be 
expected  where  such  colossal  works,  such  limited  time  for 
their  production,  and  such  an  overflow  of  sightseers  were  in 
question,  not  a  few  evidences  of  incompleteness  met  in  the 
nevertheless  inspiring  atmosphere,  and  considerable  confu- 
sion, but  withal  prevailing  good-temper,  was  apparent  in  the 
gala  crowds,  while  the  means  of  locomotion  from  the  hotel 
quarters  of  the  city  to  the  Fair  Grounds  were  for  the  time 
being  quite  inadequate.  Your  delegate,  with  other  "visit- 
ing architects,"  wasted  several  hours  in  experiment  and 
waiting  before  securing  places  in  one  of  the  incessant  rail- 
road trains  to  the  Fair.  But  his  colleagues,  doubtless,  like 
himself  felt  repaid  for  any  lost  time  or  discomfort  on  arriving 
at  the  Exposition.  You  probably  do  not  expect  from  your 
delegate  any  attempt  at  detailed  criticism  of  either  the  con- 
structional or  art  aspects  of  the  buildings,  especially  as  there 
is  plenty  of  it  to  be  found  elsewhere,  this  being  generallyi 
though  not  invariably,  highly  favorable  in  the  American 
press  and  somewhat  less  so  in  the  foreign,  and  especially  in 
the  French  press.  So  far  as  the  last  is  concerned  the  domi- 
nant tone  hitherto,  in  fact,  has  been  distinctly  censorious. 
But  we  all  know  how  the  mind  is  affected  by  the  value  of 
the  material,  as  well  as  of  the  form,  of  a  work  of  art.  A  copy 
in  plaster  may,  and  often  does,  present  finer  lines  and  sur- 
faces and  really  more  of  the  spirit  of  the  original  statue  than 
a  copy  in  marble,  but  the  ignoble  and  fragile  vehicle  invites 
depreciation    to    extend    to    the  form  moulded  out   of  it. 


18 

Brought  up  in  the  art  field  with  a  self -appreciation  not  al- 
together without  grounds,  but  of  which  they  should  not 
expect  the  entire  monopoly,  so  long  as  the  old  world,  in  the 
capital  of  Scotland,  and  the  new  one  in  that  ^^f  Massachusetts, 
each  rejoices  in  its  own  modern  Athens  ; — imbued,  moreover, 
where  architectural  art  is  concerned,  with  the  traditions  of 
that  section  of  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  devoted  to  it  (though 
seemingly  somewhat  out  of  current  touch  with  it,  for  a  revolt 
began  in  that  section,  some  time  ago,  against  certain  of  its 
methods  and  in  favor  of  assimilating  American  features  of 
architectural  instruction);  and  learning  besides  that  nearly 
all  of  this  brave  show  in  Jackson  Park  is  made  up  of  wood 
and  lath,  and  of  plaster  mixed  with  jute,  or  other  fibrous 
substance,  and  a  little  cement — thus  handicap'  ed  for  the 
purposes  of  impartial  criticism,  our  somewhat  exigent  Gallic 
friend  and  critic,  though  by  nature  amiable,  hospitable  to 
new  ideas,  where  not  at  odds  with  his  amour  propre^  and 
facile  princeps  in  the  application  of  art  to  the  various  phases 
of  beauty  and  the  transmission  of  them  to  current  needs, 
dismisses  the  Columbian  buildings  as  a  group,  takes  each 
by  itself  and  proceeds  to  pick  it  to  pieces;  and  so  occasion- 
ally, does  his  American  imitator. 

But  even  if,  ignoring  its  proportions,  its  purity  and  its 
elegance — using  an  often-belittled  word  where  it  is  really  ap- 
plicable— it  is  claimed  that  the  Fine  Arts  building  though  of 
worthy  material  is  of  design  too  severe  for  a  repositor}'  of 
fine-art  productions;  or  that  the  Administration  building 
th^igh  crowned  with  a  dome  to  rank  with  that  of  the  In- 
valides  or  St.  Peter's,  and  displaying  an  interior  worthy  of 
being  the  vestibule  to  the  whole  group  around  the  great 
plaza,  has  not   suflicient  substructure  to  prevent  the  eye 


19 


being  discomforted  by  the  feeling  tliat  the  dome  is  crushing 
it ;    or  that  the  fine  pavilions  of  the  Agriculture  building  are 
marred  (no   matter  what  famous  prototype  may  have  been 
followed)  by  the    crowded  columniatiou    and    enrichment 
of  the  arcaded  fa9ade  between  them ;  or  that  the  ornamented 
features  of  the   Transportation  buihling,  though  exquisite  in 
their  Oriental   elaboration   and   delicacy,   are  out  of  keeping 
with  the  prevailing  classic  and  Renaissance  spirit  of  the  group, 
or  that  the   delightfully  quaint    and  marvellously  adapted 
details   of   the   Fisheries   building— certainly  quite  up  to  the 
mark   of   its    prototype    in   the    mother    country— are    still 
more  inconsonant  with  that  group's  dignity  and  refinement ; 
even  allowing  any  weight   to  such  claims,   your  delegate 
believes   that   no   design    worked   out  in  the  White  City  has 
suffered  one  particle  from  a  conscious  or  unconscious  feeling, 
on   the  part   of  tlie  designer,  that  it  was  not  worth  while  to 
waste  time  and  brain  work  on  what  was  destined,  alas!  (and 
how  often  did  he  hear  the  fact  elicit  expressions  of  sadness) 
to  endure  for  only  a  few  months.     He  was  assured  by  the 
architect   of  the  most  colossal  structure  on  the  Fair  grounds 
that  he  never  worked   harder  to  achieve  maximum  results 
from   his   training   and   experience ;  and  apart  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  impossible  for  the  true  artist  to  do  otherwise  than 
put   the  best  of  himself,  as  he  is  at  the  time  of  product,  into 
his  creation,  it  ought  to  be  evident  even  to  those  who  look  at 
everything  fmm  the  tradesman's  point  of  view,  that  whether 
with   reference   to  self-advertisement  or  to  experimentation 
preparatory  of  future  duplication  in  lasting  material,  it  was 
to  the   interest   of  every  man  engaged  in  the  work  of  design 
to  do  his  "level best." 
But  with  very  few  exceptions  among  the  dozen  buildings 


20 

composing  the  main  group  (those  exceptions,  by  the  way, 
when  compared  with  tile  majority,  illustrating,  as  by  an 
object  lesson,  the  advantage  of  careful  technical  training,  even 
to  the  practitioner  who  is  recognized  as  having  more  or  less 
of  real  genius  ;  as  also  the  great  gain  to  the  public  that  is 
likely  to  come  from  the  Institute's  constant  activity  in  behalf 
of  having  the  national  patronage  in  architecture  thrown  open 
to  the  profession)  it  is  doubtless  safe  to  say  that  if,  under  a 
small  jury  of  competent  experts,  representing  adequate  train 
ing  of  the  critical  faculty,  as  well  as  different  nationalities 
and,  above  all,  cosmopolitan  spirit,  eacli  building  were  individ- 
ually compared  with  an  approximately  similar  example  of 
current  practice  in  Europe,  the  buildings  of  the  Columbian 
Exposition  would  be  held  of  certainly  not  less  than  equal 
grade. 

As  for  the  ensemble  of  the  group,  it  is  generally  conceded 
by  foreigners,  as  well  as  claimed  by  our  own  people,  that  no 
grouping  of  structures  in  the  World's  Exhibitions  hiilierto 
has  exceeded  the  Columbian  display  in  general  effect,  even 
if  some  have  possessed  features  of  interest  and  attraction 
wanting  to  ours;  while  it  cannot  of  course  be  gainsaid  that 
none  have  approached  it  in  magnitude,  either  of  conception 
or  of  individual  structure;  Geo.  B.  Post's  Building  for  Manu- 
factures and  Liberal  Arts  covering,  for  instance,  an  area 
nearly  three  limes  that  of  tlie  Pyramid  of  Cheops,  and  more 
than  six  times  that  of  the  Colosseum  in  Rome.  Standing  by 
the  side  of  this  tremendous  work,  but  looking  away  from  it — 
for  its  vast  proportions  would  destroy  the  illusion — across  the 
lagoon  and  over  the  grouping  at  each  side,  those  who  have 
been  in  Venice  can  liardly  help  fancying,  at  the  tirst  glance, 
that  they  are  standing  on  the  lliva  dei  Schiavoni  and  looking 


21 

across  the  Grand  Canal,  especially  as  the  eye  falls  on  the 
gondolas  that  seemingly  wait  the  ^' poppe^''  call;  but  as  one 
realizes  the  narrower  strip  of  water  before  him  and  remem- 
bers the  ancient  quiet  city's  water-worn  leaning  walls  and 
weather-stained  facades,  so  small-scaled  compared  with  the 
seemingly  endless  stretches  around  him,  and  so  many  of  them 
of  Gothic  vwtif,  one  soon  throws  aside  this  train  of  reverie, 
but  only  to  fall  under  the  spell  of  another,  and  to  wonder  if 
what  his  vision  covers  is  not  the  realization  of  the  classic 
and  Renaissance  phase  of  his  older  dream,  (born  of  some 
"  Wightwick's  Palace  of  Architecture")  of  student  days, 
— a  realization  evoked  from  the  swampy  waste  of  yesterday 
not,  as  it  might  almost  be  imagined,  by  Aladdin's  genii,  but 
(after  tlie  interchange,  as  it  is  understood,  of  counsel  among 
suitable  experts  and  eminent  men  of  affairs)  by  the  selection, 
from  architects  experienced  in  large  work,  of  designers  ade- 
quate in  number  for  the  numerous  proposed  buildings,  and  in 
capacity  for  their  separate  tasks ;  tlie  productions  of  all  being 
co-ordinated,  as  far  as  necessary  for  current  construction, 
under  one  director  of  works.  It  is  also  understood  that  the 
admirable  scheme — which  even  the  layman  must  conceive 
could  have  been  no  easy  task — for  the  layout  of  the  whole 
Fair. Grounds  (including  the  allotment  of  sites  for  the  various 
buildings)  was  projected  by  the  late  lamented  J.  W.  Root 
(partner  of  the  Directer  of  Works,  D.  H.  Burnham)  and  by 
F.  L.  Olmsted,  who  no  less  alive  than  of  old  (as  may  be 
judged  by  Mr.  Van  Brunt's  references  to  Mr.  Codman)  to  the 
necessity  of  suitable  associateship  in  his  professional  labors, 
began  so  manj'  years  ago,  with  Calvert  Vaux  as  partner  in  the 
layout  of  New  York's  Central  Park  and  the  Brooklyn 
Park,   that  goodly  work  for  the  public  health,  comfort  and 


22 

delectation,  which  he  has  since  accomplished.  The  Fair 
Grounds  were  of  course  in  a  very  inchoate  condition  at  the 
time  of  the  Convention,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  what 
a  resplendent  scene  wilTlbe  presented  when  the  buildings 
shall  be  viewed  rising  from  the  finished  work  of  the  Land- 
scape Architects. 

Tlie  dedication  of  the  buildings  has  been  made  so  familiar 
through  the  press  that  your  delegate  need  only  advert, 
currente  calamo,  to  the  ceremonies  attending  it  bearing  spe- 
cially on  the  Building  Art.  These  took  place  in  the  largest 
building  of  the  group,  which  its  architect  told  him  is  covered 
by  about  thirty-seven  acres  of  roofing  (supported  on  trusses, 
of  peculiar  interest  to  the  architect  and  engineer,  having  the 
enormous  span  of  some  800  feet)  and,  with  the  additional 
capacity  of  the  galleries,  afifords  a  floor  space  of  about  f  jrty 
four  acres.  Your  delegate,  like  others  doubtless,  had  re- 
ceived the  impression  that  provision  had  been  made  for  the 
members  of  the  Convention  to  hear  as  well  as  to  see  the 
ceremonies,  but  preferring  to  "  stick  by  his  crowd  "  he  had 
declined  an  invitation  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  do 
so  at  very  close  range.  The  box  to  which  his  ticket  assigned 
him  gave  however  no  such  opportunity.  Even  the  chorus  of 
some  eight  thousand  voices  rendering  the  music  of  G.  W. 
Chadwick  and  otliers  reached  your  delegate's  place  with 
much  of  its  volume  subdued,  but  perhaps  with  none  of  its 
inspiring  effect  lost.  The  chorus  was  supplementary  to  a  fit- 
ting ode  of  Harriet  S  Monroe  ("read  however  by  another  lady), 
in  which  tender  allusion  was  made  to  J.  W.  Root,  who  had 
died  on  the  very  threshold  of  his  work  for  the  Fair,  and 
whom  the  poet  supposed  to  be  present  : 


23 

"Back  with  the  old  glad  smile  comes  one  we  know — 
We  bade  him  rear  our  house  of  joy  to-day  ; 
But  beauty  opened  wide  her  starry  way, 
And  he  passed  on."  • 

The  immensity  of  the  building  is  such  that  though  your 
delegate's  box  was  nearly  opposite  the  scene  of  the  dedi- 
catory ceremonies  it  was  not  merely  impossible  to  hear  any- 
thing of  tjiem.  but  it  was  only  by  the  aid  of  a  field-glass  that 
he  saw  them  distinctly.  And  they  were  worth  coming  any  dis- 
tance to  see,  especially  for  one  who  has  a  personal  recollection 
of  the  day  of  small  things  in  the  Institute,  and  whose  re- 
searches, in  behalf  of  the  art  and  practitioners  of  architecture 
in  America,  reach  back  beyond  its  inception,  and  outside  of 
its  still  too  narrow  limits  of  to-day.  To  such  a  one  the  scene 
was  probably  really  as  interesting  as  and  more  pleasant 
than  to  some  of  the  participants  in  it.  For  the  remem- 
brance of  previous  not  always  Christian-like  struggles  for  a 
place  in  a  field  of  emolument  and  reputation  may  some- 
times intrude  in  a  more  or  less  disquieting  way  on  the 
sati<: faction  of  a  participant  in  the  honors  accorded  to  it. 

Here  is  the  case  however  as  it  stood,  attesting  the  profes- 
sion's prestige  so  far  gained  and  its  status  as  promised  there- 
by :  In  the  presence  of  the  highest  Governmental  officials, 
Judicial,  Legislative  and  Executive,  of  the  American  Union 
(President  Harrison's  promised  attendance,  however,  being 
unhappily  prevented  by  the  dangerous  illness  of  his  wife)  of 
its  component  States  and  Territories,  and  of  its  local  subdi- 
visions, as  well  as  of  the  representatives  of  trans-Atlaulic  and 
trans-Pacific  powers,  ushered  to  the  occasion  by  all  the  pomp 
of  military,  civic  and  municipal  splendor,    and  by  tens  of 


24 

thousands  from  the  veteran  to  the  school  child,  the  Director 
General  of  the  Exposition,  G.  R  Davis,  with  its  President, 
T.  W.  Palmer,  and  its  Art  Director,  H.  C.  Ives,  by  his  side, 
introduced,  as  the  mouth-piece  of  the  architects,  engineers 
and  various  artists  of  the  buildings,  its  Director  of  Works 
D.  H.  Burnham,  who  (doubtless  realizing  that  his  role  was 
much  greater  than  it  would  have  been  simply  as  one  of  a 
tirm  to  whom  deserved  local  partiality— as  well  perhaps 
as  a  less  worthy  spirit  of  separativeness  and  exclvsiveness 
—might  have  assigned  a  task  beyond  the  capacity 
of  any  two  architects  in  the  world)  in  a  few  sentences 
not,  on  the  whole,  more  grandiose  than  might  reasonably 
be  expected  under  circumstances  so  unique,  called  at- 
tention to  the  results  laid  before  the  multitude  (he 
himself  estimated  the  assemblage  before  him  at  two  hundred 
thousand)  by  his  professional  colleagues  and  their  adminis- 
trative, engineering  and  art  coadjutors ;  on  which  H.  N. 
Higinbotham,  President  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  formally 
accepted  the  buildings,  "  exulting  in  the  belief  that  these 
beautiful  structures  furnish  proof  to  the  world  that,  with  all 
our  material  growth  and  prosperity  since  the  Columbian  dis- 
covery of  America,  we  have  not  neglected  those  civilizing 
arts  which  minister  to  a  people's  refinements  and  become  the 
chief  glory  of  a  nation."  Then  quoting  Milton's  assurance 
that 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories,  no  less  renowned  than  war," 
Mr.  Higinbotliam  proceeded  to  decorate  a  group 
around  him  with  bronze  medals,  the  work  of  the  artist  Ved- 

der,  and  inscribed  with  these  woids   "  To 

one  of  the  designers  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition, 
ou  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  Columbus, 


35 

October  21,  1892."    Tlie  following  are   the  names  of  the  re- 
cipients, arranged  by  sex  and  alphabetically  : 

WOMEN:  Miss  M.  Cassalt,  Miss  S.  G.  Hayden,  Mrs.  F. 
MacMonnies,  Miss  H.  S.  Monroe,  Miss  A.  Rideout,  Miss  E. 
Yandall. 

MEN:      Adler   D.  :     Alvord,     J.     W  ;     Armstrong,   M. 
Atwo  )d,  C.  B. ;    Baur,  T  ;  Beckwith,  J.  C. ;   Bemau,  S.  S. 
Bitter,  C.  ;    Blankiugsliip,  J.  A.  ;    Blashfield,  E.   H. ;  Bock 
K.  W.  ;  Boyle,  J.  J. ;  Buruham,  D.  H. ;  Chadwick,  Q.  W. 
Cobb,  H.  I.;    Codnian,  H.  S. ;    Cox.    K.;    Dodge,  W.  L. 
E.lbrook,   VV.   J.  ;   French,  D.  C.  ;    Garnsey,  E.  E.  ;   Gelert, 
J.  ;  Graham,  E.  R.  ;  Grogan,  F.  W.  ;   Healey,  G.  L. ;   Hola- 
bird,  W. ;  Howe.  F.  M.  ;    Hunt,  R.  M.  :    Jenny,  W.  L.  B 
Kemeys,  E. ;  Kraus,  R. ;  MacHarg,  W.  S. ;  MacMonnies,  F. 
Martiny,  P. ;    Maynard.  G. ;    McEwen,   W. ;  McKim,  C.  F. 
McNeil,  H. ;   Meade,  W.  R. ;  Mdchers,  G.  ;    Millet,  F.  D. 
Millet,  L.  J.  ;  Olmsted,  F.  L.  ;  Olmsted,  J.  C.  ;   Paine,  J.  K. 
Peabody,  R*  S.  ;  Post,  G.  B. ;  Potter,  E.  C.  ;  Procter,  A.  P 
Reid,  R.  ;     Reinhart,   C. ;     Roche,    M.  ;     Rohl-Smith,    C. 
Sandier,  A.  ;    Sargent,  F. ;    Schladermundt,  H.  T. ;    Shank 
land,  E.  C.  :   Shirlaw,  W.  ;   Simmons,  E.  E.  ;   Stearns,  J.  G. 
St.    Gaudens,   A.  ;    Sullivan,    L.  ;     Taft,    L.  ;    Thomas,  T. 
Tomlins,  W.  L. ;  Turner,  C.  Y.  ;  Ulrich.  R. ;   Van  Brunt,  H. 
Waagen,  M.  A.;   Warner,  O.  L. :  Weir,   J.  A. ;    White,  S. 
Whitehouse,  F. 

An  interesting  point  in  relation  to  these  names  has  been 
brought  to  your  delegate's  attention.  This  is — and  it  in- 
directly illustrates  the  shortsightedness  of  those  who 
insisted  that  the  Exposition  should  be  held  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  professedly  and   mainly   on   the   ground   that   it 


26 

would  be  more  central  as  regards  European  visitors,  but  no 
doubt  largely  also  from  mere  sectional  prejudice— that,  so 
far  at  least  as  regards  those  parties  practising  as  architects 
and  nearly  as  completely  so  with  reference  to  others,  the  names 
represent  only  those  who  received  their  professional  train- 
ing in  the  East  of  our  own  country  or  still  further  to 
the  East,  in  some  trans-A.tlantic  centre.  Thus  the  West, 
or  rather,  speaking  geogniphically,  the  Eastern  centre  of 
our  land  ffor  the  people  of  Cliicago  are  Easterners  to  those 
of  Omaha  or  Denver  or  San  Francisco)  has  furnished  the 
site  and  the  sea-board  East  has  furnished  the  designs  for  the 
Columbian  Exposition.  Tlieir  hands  are  inseparably  joined 
for  their  mutual  support,  and  the  result  to  the  foreigner  is 
simply  American. 

The  occasion  would  have  seemed  to  most  New  Yorkers 
but  partially  improved  if  Chauncey  M.  Depew  had  not  been 
invited  to  its  oratory,  for  one  of  those  addresses  in  which  he 
so  well  mingles  shrewdness  for  the  passing  hours  with  illus- 
trations from  historical  retrospect  and  with  forecast  for  tlie 
coming  day;  and  he  seems,  judging  by  his  published  words, 
to  have  realized  that  it  demanded  tiie  full  benefit  of  his 
talents.  The  unlocalized  character  of  the  proceedings  showed 
in  another  address  by  the  Southron,  Henry  Watterson,  and 
its  just  and  cosmopolitan  spirit  was  evinced  by  the  part  as- 
signed to  the  Chief  of  the  Woman's  Board,  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer, 
and  by  its  religious  exercises  being  conducted  mainly  by  the 
Protestant  Bishop  Fowler,  from  the  Pacific  coast,  and  by 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  of  the  most  ancient  Catholic  seat  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  within  the  original  thirteen  States.  A 
memorable  occasion  for  practitioners  in  Architecture  and  its 
cognate  Arts,  and  very  different  from  the   opening  of  the 


27 

first  of  the  World's  Exiiibitions  in  America  (which  occurred 
in  New\"ork  about  1856),  when  the  architects,  engineers  and 
decorators  of  its  Crj-stal  Palace  (as  it  was  called  in  imitation 
of  its  London  prototype  of  1853),  liad  no  official  place  on  the 
programme.  Tiie  dedication  of  the  Columbian  buildings  is 
not  to  be  recalled  by  any  professor  of  the  building  art.  or  of 
its  constructive  and  decorative  allies,  without  profound  sat- 
isfaction. So  far  as  3'our  delegate  is  concerned  the  only 
drawback  to  his  enjoyment  in  recalling  the  White  City  (out- 
side of  the  incongruity  of  holding  an  Institute  Convention 
coincidentally)  is  tiiat,  in  a  short  conversation  he  had  the 
privilege  of  holding  on  Dedication  Day  with  President 
Palmer,  he  learned  that  that  gentleman  feared  that  the  enor- 
mous cost  of  maintenance  would  probably  forbid  the  buildings 
(except  the  very  few  designed  for  permanent  use)  being  on 
exhibition  much  beyond  the  close  of  the  Fair. 

Your  delegate  has  prepared  a  series  of  questions  (see  ap- 
pendix) addressed  to  the  designers  of  the  various  buildings, 
the  hoped-for  answers  to  which  will,  he  thinks,  present  data 
available  for  future  use  in  behalf  of  the  profession. 

Your  delegate  ventures,  in  closing  this  brief  record  of  the 
official  recognition  before  the  world  of  the  worth  of  the  pro- 
fessional service  involved  in  the  Exposition  buildings,  to 
quote  the  following  words  from  a  lecture  of  his  own,  pub- 
lished by  the  Institute  in  1869.  After  adverting  to  the  pub- 
lic inappreciation  of  the  worth  of  such  service  he  said : 
"  What  extensive  public  work  of  combined  art,  in  New  York 
City,  would  probably  receive  the  most  votes  as,  on  the  whole, 
the  most  satisfactory?  Probably  the  Central  Park,  a  monu- 
ment of  co-operation,  for  a  great  practical  purpose,  in 
aesthetic  science  and  art.     To  whom  will  the  next  age  assign 


28 

the  credit  for  this   most  creditable   product   of  American 
art  ?— the  initiators,  who  prophesied  its  necessity  and  uses— 
the  public,  whose  generous  instincts  ordered,  sanctioned  and 
sustained  it— the  Commissioners  who  administered  it— the 
various   designers   who   projected  it  —  the   superintendent, 
whose  arduous  and  delicate  task  it  was  to  mould  its  working 
processes  and  to  harmonize  the  diverse  and  easily  discordant 
elements  of  its  complex  principal   working  stages— or  the 
corps  of  engineers,  gardeners  and  architects  who  brought 
out  its  masses  and  elaborated  its  detail?     Will  it  not  have 
learnt  to  distribute  the  credit  among  the  different  workers 
according  to  the  mark  they  made,  and  thank  Providence 
that  the  necessities  of  co-operation  were  so  strong  as  to  ren- 
der possible,  for  a  long  enougli  period,  that  sufflcicnt  har- 
mony for  practical  purposes  which  is  so  rare  among  artists— 
to  destroy  the  sordid  schemes  of  politicians  and  other  ad- 
verse possibilities,  and  to  secure  to  our  own  and  future  gen- 
erations   so  valuable  a  boon  ? "    The  hope  therein  implied 
of  a  future  official  recognition  of  the  value  of  sesthetical  ser- 
vice in  greal  works,  has  been  realized  long  before  "  the  next 
age."    It  is  less  than  quarter  of  a  century  since  it  was  uttered, 
yet  it  has  already  been  fulfilled  in  the  dedication  ceremonies 
of  the  buildings  of  the  Columbian  World's  Fair  ;  and  if  most 
of  those  buildings  must  vanish,  like  "the  stuff  that  dreams 
are  made  of,"  the  repository  for  Art  treasures   will   at   least 
remain,  and  Jackson  Park,   projected  by   tlie   same  fertile 
brain  that  so  largely   helped  to  plan  the  Central  Park  and 
many  another  will,  like  the  latter  and  Boston  Common,  re- 
main "  a  joy  forever,"  or  at  least  as  long  as  public  ethics  are 
pure  and  active  enough  to  keep  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
corner-grocery  politicians. 


29 
THIRD   DAY. 

The  mid-day  ceremonies  of  Dedication  Day,  and  still  more 
perhaps  its  abundant  and  varied  post-crepuscular  celebra- 
tions, were  hardly  conducive  to  early  rising,  and  it  was  not 
a  great  while  before  high  noon  when  the  proceedings  of  the 
third  day  were  opened  in  the  Convention  Hall  of  W.  L.  B. 
Jenny's  Horticultural  Building  with  one  of  President  Ken- 
dall's customary  pitliy  but  not  less  graceful  little  speeches,  an 
aptness  for  which  is  a  quite  beueficeut  gift  in  a  presiding 
officer  (or  moderator  as  the  canny  Scotcli  call  him)  and  one 
not  too  common  in  our  profession.  Between  Mr.  Kendall's 
concise  and  witty  remarks  in  opening  a  meeting  there  is, 
moreover,  generally  to  be  detected,  by  tliose  familiar  with 
the  Institute,  a  desire  in  the  interest  of  harmony  and  of 
"  maliing  things  pleasant  generally  "  to  oil  the  wheels  about 
to  be  set  in  motion.  Formally,  the  session  began  with  an 
acknowledgment  from  the  Chair  of  that  due  fmm  tlie  Insti- 
tute—and lie  might  have  added,  from  the  wliole  profession 
and  from  the  art  world  throughout — for  "  the  splendid  recog- 
nition," secured  through  Mr.  Burnham,  in  Cliicago,  "  of  the 
architects,  painters,  sculptors  and  decorators  of  America." 
The  suggestion  made  by  the  Chair  was  speedily  adopted  bj^ 
the  Convention  and,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Stone,  it  passed  an  ex- 
pression of  its  indebtedness  to  him  and  to  his  deceased  partner, 
Mr.  Root ;  Mr.  Adler  at  the  same  time,  at  the  request  of 
Mr.  Ferry,  enlarging  in  liis  usual  lucid  manner  on  the  import- 
ance of  the  prominent  example  afforded  by  the  Exposition 
buildings  in  "  giving  to  our  profession,  as  a  whole,  a  step  for- 
ward" and  in  establishing  a  precedent  by  which  the  architect 
and  his  art  coadjutor  would  no  longer  be  placed  upon  "  the 


30 

plane  of  a  mere  employe,  not  worthy  of  recognition  for  the 
work  he  has  done  because  he  is  paid  or  is  going  to  be  paid 
some  time,"  and  he  might,  if  some  instances  had  been 
adduced,  have  added  to  ths  last  clause,  "  if  it  sliould  be 
foimd  that  there  is  no  legal  way  of  escaping  any  payment  at 
all."  He  added  a  tribute  to  Mr.  Olmsted  and  thought 
"  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  admirable  setting  which  he 
has  given  it,  the  work  of  the  architects,  or  at  least  much  of 
that  which  is  now  admired,  would  have  been  lost." 

With  reference  to  the  old  question  of  anomalous  member- 
ship and  to  regulations  rendered  obsolete  or  nugatory  by  the 
unification  of  the  former  Western  Association  of  Architects 
and  other  causes,  in  rectification  of  which  the  Board  of 
Directors  had  recommended  the  adoption  of  a  motion 
oifered  by  A.  J.  Bloor,  and  covered  b}^  propositions  tliat 
wherever  there  exists  more  than  one  Chapter  witliin  tlie 
limits  of  any  State,  and  where  it  is  desired  to  communicate 
officially  on  behalf  of  the  Institute  or  of  tlie  profession  of 
architecture  with  that  State's  legislature,  executive  or  ju- 
diciarj',  then  the  Chapters  in  tliat  State  shall  unite,  forming 
a  state  association,  bearing  the  name  of  that  State  ;  and  such 
state  association  shull  represent  sucli  Chapters  and  shall 
report  to  the  Institute  for  the  purpose  of  anj'  transaction 
with  sucli  state  authority ;  and  it  shall  be  unlawful,  as  far  as 
the  Institute  is  concerned,  for  anj^  individual  Chapter  to 
hold  communication  with  state  authorities  except  under  the 
direction  of  the  state  association  so  formed — the  following 
was  passed  : 

"  Resolved,  That  so  much  of  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Di- 
rectors as  relates  to  the  matters  just  mentioned  be  referred 


31 

to  a  Committee  of  three,  to  be  appointed  by  tlie  Chair;  that 
this  Committee  of  three  shall  take  in  hand  the  revision  of  our 
Constitution  and  By-Laws  and  the  proper  formulation  of 
those  clauses  relating  to  the  formation  of  state  architectural 
societies  for  certain  purposes ;  and  that  this  Committee  be 
given  till  the  next  annual  Convention  to  complete  its  work 
and  report  same  to  that  Convention  for  action  and  adoption." 

Tliis  was  followed  by  the  passage  of  a  resolution,  offered 
by  Mr.  Preston,  that  the  Chair  also  appoint  a  special  Com- 
mittee of  three  to  revise  the  schedule  of  charges,  with  special 
reference  to  a  proper  additional  percentage  in  the  case  of 
alterations  of  builrlings  as  distinct  from  new  work. 

Apropos  of  the  subject  of  anomalous  relations  between  the 
Institute  and  its  Chapters,  Mr.  E.  H.  Taylor  asked  a  question 
which  reminded  your  delegate  that  among  the  archives  of  the 
Institute  there  ought  to  be  extant  some  valuable  letters  of  his. 
illustrating  the  theme  from  the  point  of  view  in  western  en- 
vironments, and  which  might  materially  assist  the  cogitations 
of  any  Committee  charged  with  reducing  those  relations  to 
feasibility.  It  is  to  be  hoped  indeed  that  future  Committees, 
charged  with  revision  of  Institute  regimen,  will  at  once  save 
weariness  to  the  readers  of  their  reports  and  their  own  time 
by  ascertaining  tlie  stage  at  which  antecedent  action  has  left 
the  subject  referred  to  them  ;  and  will  reserve  their  strength 
for  the  development  of  a  more  advanced  field  for  discussion 
and  action  upon  it ;  and  it  is  also  not  too  much  perhaps  to 
hope  that  the  amounts  disbursed  in  the  Secretary's  office  since 
Consolidation  (which,  as  shown  by  the  Treasurer's  report, 
was  last  year  from  six  to  ten  times  as  much  as  the  usual 
charges  therefor^  in   previous  years)  have   resulted  by  this 


32 

time  in  the  production  of  an  index  to  the  Institute's  archives, 
printed  and  manuscript,  wliich  might  malie  the  necessary 
collations  therefrom  a  comparatively  very  easy  matter  for 
those  gentlemen. 

Thanks  for  courtesies  tendered  to  the  Convention  were 
voted  to  the  World's  Fair  Commission,  to  Mr.  Higinbotham 
and  to  the  Illinois  Chapter ;  as  well  as  to  the  press  of  Chicago, 
for  its  reports  of  the  Convention. 

Penaing  the  collection  of  ballots  for  the  Officers  and  Stand- 
ing Committees  for  the  ensuing  year  the  Secretary  presented 
the  extraordinary  proposition  that  the  Institute  should  have  a 
permanent  Secretary  "  but  no  one  from  its  [your]  members" 
at  an  annual  salary  of  three  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Yost, 
though,  evidently,  like  probably  nearly  all  present,  not  catch- 
ing the  whole  import  of  a  proposition  so  incongruous,  objected 
that  such  a  step  might  be  found  inconsistent  with  "  the  best 
policy  for  the  welfare  of  tlie  Institute  at  large,"  and  that  it 
might  not  be  easy,  in  such  an  appointee,  to  find  a  person  com- 
petent to  do  the  organization's  work  •'  and  yet  uphold  the 
dignity  of  the  Institute  as  a  Secretary  ought  to  do,  in  corre- 
spondence with  perhaps  foreign  bodies." 

If  a  proposition,  however  quietly  introduced,  to  hand 
over  the  complex  and  delicate  responsibilities  of  the 
Institute  Secretaryship  to  any  other  than  one  of  its 
Fellows  had  been  made  ui.der  other  circumstances,  members 
familiar  with  combinations  larger  than  those  of  architects' 
offices  would  doubtless  have  detected  in  it  a  door  openable 
to  processes  not  consonant  with  those  that  ought  to  prevail 
in  a  professional  body ;  and  the  suggestion  would  probably 
have  been  negatived  with  substantial  unanimity.  Your  dele- 
gate will  not  at  present  detain  you  with  all  the   points  of 


33 

I 

t  ethics  and  expedience  involved  in  such  a  proposition,  further 

than  to  hint  that  while  the  $3,000  annual  salary  suggested  in 

tit  would  be  very  moderate  remuneration  for  an  experienced 
practitioner  also  competent  for  the  secretarial  work  of  the 
Institute  it  would  seem  to  be  money  better  thrown  into  the 
sea  than  appropriated  to  one  with  no  responsibilities  to  pro- 
fessional training  or  brotherhood  and  who  in  addition  to 
being  incompetent  might  use  the  Institute  simply  as  a  trading 
£;round  to  earn  that  and  such  additional  profits  as  from  his 
tradesman's  point  of  view  he  would  perhaps  consider  legiti- 
mate. The  present  financial  provision  for  the  Secretary  is 
made  not  on  the  theory  that  it  rises  to  the  real  value  of  the 
higher  work  inseparable  from  the  adequate  fulfillment  of  the 
duties  of  his  office,  but  to  protect  those  duties  from  the 
wasteful  drudgery  of  mere  clerical  service.  Such  reflections 
would  under  ordinary  circumstances  naturally  occur  to  the 
average  member  of  the  Institute,  even  if  but  partially  ac- 
quainted with  the  responsibilities  of  its  Secretaryship;  but, 
on  the  qui  vive  for  adjourn  ment  and  all  the  opportimity 
possible  for  further  inspection  of  the  wonderful  architectural 
scene  every  where  around  them,  the  meeting  hurriedly  gave  its 
consent  that  the  Board  of  Directors  should  have  the  option  of 
experimenting  in  the  matter;  after  the  President  had  stated 
that  action  in  it  would  be  tentative  "and  would  not  be  per- 
sisted in  if  not  found  consistent." 

Then  followed  an  episode  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  will  not 
occupy  too  prominent  a  place  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
vention, when  put  into  permanent  shape.  The  most  perti- 
nent statement  that  occurred  in  it,  was  made  by  the  parly 
who  nevertheless  was  the  most  persistent  interlocutor,  and 
was  that  the  matter  should  have  been  reserved  for  a  "  per- 


34 

sonal  conversation,"  and  that  "there  was  nothing  in  it  that 
should  take  the  time  of  the  Convention."  A  little  while 
before,  Mr.  Gibson,  alluding  to  the  paucity  of  professional 
papers  produced  in  recent  years  at  the  Conventions,  had  got 
a  resolution  passed  that  the  Administration  should  select  and 
invite  members  to  prepare  such  for  the  next  Convention.  In 
supporting  him  Mr.  H.  Van  Brunt  had  adverted  to  the  pro- 
bability that  the  next  Convention  would  be  "held  before 
representatives  of  the  profession  from  all  paris  of  the  world," 
and  Mr.  Carr  had  asked  if  anything  would  be  done  "about 
adding  a  collection  of  drawings  of  the  architects  of  this 
country  to  theWorld's  Columbian  Exposition,"  to  which  Mr. 
R.  M.  Hunt,  ex-President  of  the  Institute,  replied  that  he 
was  a  member  of  a  Committee  f  r  that  purpose.  It  now  ap- 
peared that  Mr.  K.  C.  McLean  had  been  appointed  by  its 
own  members  the  Secretary  of  a  local  Committee,  itself  ap- 
pointed by  a  sub-division  (tlie  World's  Congress  Auxiliary) 
of  the  Administration  of  the  Exposition,  to  "get  up"  a 
World's  Congress  of  Architects  at  the  Fair  next  August. 
The  local  Committee's  Secretary  seemed  to  have  but  a  mod- 
erate memory  for  what  had  been  already  accomplished  iu  the 
direction  of  such  duties  as  would  naturally  fall  to  his  office, 
and  a  still  more  moderate  conception  of  what  would  be  neces- 
sary therefor ;  and  it  seemed  that  the  same  hard  fate,  in  the 
way  of  losing  important  papers  or  of  never  receiving  expected 
ones,  observable  in  his  case  at  the  close  of  or  after  former 
Conventions,  still  pursued  him,  for  he  informed  the  meeting 
of  more  than  one  such  case.  Having  referred  to  ex-President 
Hunt  as  Chairman  of  the  Institute's  Committee  on  Foreign 
Correspondence,  that  gentleman  stated  that  a  number  of 
architects  had  been  in  correspondence  with  him  on  the  sub- 


35 

ject  of  a  possible  architects'  congress  in  this  country  and  that 
he  had  forwarded  papers  on  the  subject  to  the  local  Com- 
mittee in  Chicago.  Whereupon  the  Secretary  of  that  Com- 
mittee went  on  to  say  that  they  had  never  reached  it,  that 
they  had  probably  been  sent  somewhere  else,  and  Mr.  Hunt 
promptly  rejoined  that  they  had  certainly  been  sent  to  that 
Committee,  as  his  letters  to  it  covering  them  had  been 
answered.  Mr.  Hunt  then  proceeded  to  give  the  Secretary 
of  the  local  Committee  some  information,  obviously  all  news 
to  the  Secretary,  as  to  what  he  had  himself  done  in  the 
premises  and  to  offer  him  advice  which  he  evidently  ^tood 
sorely  in  need  of,  as  to  what  he  ought  to  have  done  and  ought 
to  go  on  doing  if  the  proposed  World's  Congress  of  Archi- 
tects was  to  be  made  successful.  From  all  which  it  would  ap- 
pear to  be  very  doubtful  whether  the  "attitude  of  excep- 
tional dignity  "  properly  enjoined  by  Mr.  H.  Van  Brunt  on 
the  Institute,  in  its  dealings  with  foreign  architectural 
bodies  in  relation  to  such  a  congress,  can  be  adequately  pre- 
served simply  in  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  of  a  Committee 
apparently  not  included  in  the  counsels  and  correspondence 
of  his  office,  and  it  is  therefore  to  be  hoped  that  influence 
will  be  brought  to  bear  by  the  Institute  Administration  on 
the  local  Committee,  which  will  yield  a  better  promise  than 
now  seems  to  exist  of  success  for  a  fitting  sequence  to  the 
professi  n's  part  in  the  ceremonies  of  Dedication  Da}'. 

The  tellers,  Messrs.  Stone  and  Yost,  reported  the  following 
result  of  the  two  tickets  presented  by  the  nominating  Com- 
mittees:—President,  E.  H.  Kendall,  New  York  City;  First 
Vice-President,  D.  H.  Burnham,  Chicago ;  Second  Vice- 
President,  Henry  Van  Brunt,  Kansas  City,  Mo. ;  Secretary, 
Dankmar  Adler,  Chicago  ;  Treasurer,  S.  A.  Treat,  Chicago  ; 


36 

Directors  for  three  years,  Alfred  Stone,  Providence,  R.  I.; 
Geo.  W.  Rapp,  Cincinnati ;  Wm.  G.  Preston,  Boston  ;  W.  W. 
Clay,  Chicago;  Joseph  F.  Banmann,  Knoxville,  Tenn.;  P.  P. 
Furber,  St.  Louis ;  R.  W.  Gibson,  New  York  City ;  C.  H. 
Johnson,  St.  Paul.  Minn.;  and  Chicago  was  nominated  as 
the  next  place  of  meeting. 

As  regards  the  locality  for  the  next  annual  Institute  meeting: 
it  has  been  the  custom  for  its  Conventions  simply  to  recom- 
mend a  place;  subject  to  whatever  decision,  resulting  from  a 
consideration  of  current  circumstances,  may  be  finally  reached 
by  tl>e  Institute  Administration.  Your  delegate  has  herein- 
before given  his  reasons  against  the  concurrence  of  any 
Institute  Convention  with  such  imescapable  distractions  as 
those  of  the  Columbian  Exposition.  His  objections  would  of 
course  applj^  with  still  more  force  to  one  which  should  be 
characterized  by  the  extraordinary  importance  derivable  from 
the  co-operation  of  a  World's  Congress  of  Architects.  It  is 
true  that  unless  a  change  comes  over  the  methods— and  par- 
ticularly the  secretarial  methods— of  the  local  committee  in 
.charge  of  such  a  congress,  it  would  seem  very  problematical 
whether  any  such  co-operation  will  occur;  but  if  it  should, 
it  can  hardly  be  questionable  that  a  change  of  venue,  as  the 
lawyers  say,  would  be  advisable.  This  would  seem  most 
consistent  with  the  interests  the  Institute  represents,  which 
interests, — and  not  the  "booming"  of  persons,  places  or 
incidents— are  certainly  what  all  its  Conventions  are  called 
together  to  promote.  Even  if  that  committee  has  been, 
meanwhile,  acting  on  Mr.  Hunt's  suggestions  and  making  up 
for  lost  time,  and  should  thus  succeed  in  securing  the  attend- 
ance of,  and  papers  from,  foreign  architects,  colloquial 
explanations  and  amplifications  of  such  papers,  and  a  profit- 


I 


37 

able  interchange  of  views  on  the  technical  points  suggested 
by  them,  could  not  be  nearly  so  successfully  carried  on  amid 
the  all-absorbing  attractions  of  the  Exposition  as  they  would 
be  out  of  their  immediate  touch.  Chicago  and  its  magic- 
sprung  White  City,  with  all  the  rest  of  its  almost  as  swiftly 
developed  wonders,  could  then  be  absorbed  without  counter 
engagements,  en  route  either  going  to  or  coming  from  St. 
Paul  or  Minneapolis,  which  are  close  by  for  these  days  of 
swift  railroading ;  but  if  they  are  too  far  off,  Milwaukee  is 
but  two  or  three  hours  away.  Such  a  change  of  venue,  your 
delegate  ventures  to  say,  might  properly  be  suggested  by  this 
Chapter  before  long,  if  it  desires  the  utmost  attainable  success 
for  the  projected  World's  Congress  of  Architects  and  con- 
tinues to  be  unable  to  learn  of  any  sign  of  promise  for  it ; 
and  though  your  delegate  stood,  for  some  time,  almost  alone 
in  the  East,  in  insisting  that  the  American  Institute  of  Archi- 
tects could  not  fairly  justifj'its  claim  to  national  jurisdiction, 
in  respect  to  the  interests  of  American  Architecture  and  its 
practitioners,  unless  it  should  become  unified  with  whatever 
other  organizations  in  the  Union  worked  sincerely,  largely 
and  efficiently  in  the  same  cause,  he  takes  it  for  granted  that 
if  ever  the  time  was  when  the  vast  majority  of  the  better 
elements  of  New  York  did  not  wish  a  national  success  to 
Chicago  in  handling  the  Columbian  World's  Fair,  that  time 
has  long  gone  by ;  and  he  indulges  in  the  hope  that  our 
Chicagoan  colleagues,  realizing  this,  will  receive  kindlj^  any 
hints  offered  lo  or  bj'  the  Institute  Administration,  in  the 
real  interests  alike  of  our  own  usual  Convention  of  this  year, 
of  the  much  to  be  desired  and  perhaps  still  possible  World's 
Congress  of  Architects,  and  of  Chicago's  historical  Exposi- 
tion. Respectfully  submitted,         A.  J.  Blooe. 


38 

APPENDIX 


5EW    TOKK    OIIAPTEK    A.    I.    A.,    WELLES    BUILDING, 
18    BROADWAY,    NEW    YORK. 

January  IGtIi,  1893. 


Mr_ 


Dear  Sir  :  I  have,  since  the  Cohimbiau  Exposition  was 
initiated,  and  of  late  more  frequently  than  before,  been  called 
on  to  answer  various  questions  in  regard  to  its  buildings; 
and  I  also  need  information  on  the  subject  for  my  own  use, 
in  making  my  report,  as  Delegate  of  the  New  York  Chapter 
A.  I.  A.,  to  the  recent  Convention  of  the  Institute.  Referr- 
ing to  the  structure  designed  and  executed  by  you,  in  the 
Fair  Grounds,  will  you  kindly  affix  answers  to  the  following 
questions,  as  far  as  you  can  do  so  consistently  with  the  just 
interests  of  yourself  or  others  ? 

1 .  What  u  the  official  name  of  ymtr  building  ? 

2.  Are  the  uses  to  which  it  will  be  put  sufficiently  covered  by 

this  name  ? 

3.  If  not,  to  lohat  other  uses  will  it  be  put? 

4-.    What  are  its  main  dimensions  ?    (a)  longitudinal 

(b)  transverse  (c)  vertical 

^.  Of  what  material  is  it  mainly  co7istrueted  ? 

6.  What,  if  any,  features  of  its  constntction  are      (a)  original, 

(b)  rarely  used  hitherto,  (c)  used  on  a  mucli 

larger  scale  than  hitherto  ? 

7.  What  terminology  do  you  prefer  to  employ  in  characterizing 

its  style  f  e.  g.     Classic  ;   Grecian  ; 

Roman  ;  Oolhic  {so  called)  ; 


39 

Romanesque  Seandinaman  ; 

Russian  ;  Renaissance  ; 

African*  including  Egyptian  ; 

Saracenic  ;  Moi'esqve  ■  ; 

Etc.  Oriental,  including  Persian  ; 

Indian  ;  Burmese  ; 

Chinese  ;  Japanese  ; 

Etc. 
More  specifically,   wiiat  school  of  Gothic  or  Renaissance, 

toith  reference  to  location  or  epoch  ? 
If  a  mixture  of  styles  is  used,  please  name  them. 
8.    What  will  be  the  cost  of  your  building  ? 

Will  such  cost  be  less  or  more  than  contracted  or  estimated 
for  ? 
O.    Where  did  the  designer  or  designers  receive  ?iis,  her,  or  their 

professional  training  ? 
10.  How  long,  in  your  opinion,  would  your  building  last,  if  it 
were  kept  in  such  repair  as  its  materials  will  admit  of? 
Volunteer  remarks  from  designers,   on  the  above  or  any 
other  pertinent  points,  will  be  appreciatively  received  by  the 
undersigned. 

A.  J.  BLOOR,  Secretary. 


■&* 


♦The  word  "African,"  though  not  customary  In  architectural  termin- 
ology la  here  Introduced  for  the  sake  of  greater  precl.-lon  In  differen- 
tiating. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  050753828 


